Betta Fin Loss - Help Requested

[b3t4m0m]

Hello y'all.

This is my first post on this lovely forum, but I'm coming to you with a rather pressing issue. I'm a newbie beta fish hobbyist, having adored the species for awhile now, and unfortunately one come down with some form of mystery ailment that I've never encountered before.

My two fish share a 2.5 gallon tank that's split down the middle (too small, I know). My older sick fish is named Reno, who inhabits the right side of the tank. Over the summer I've become a bit lax when feeding them (every other day usually, but they were both overweight) and over the course of a few weeks I noticed that Reno wasn't eating anything I sprinkled into his side of the tank, or interacting with as much interest as he used to. It was only until today that I realized how bad he's become.

He no longer swims around his tank and darts behind the hidey holes I've made him, but instead only lies on the bottom. When he swims up for air, he can notably only swim sideways. He was once a vibrant purple, but is now discolored over most of his body in either a light pink or sickly white. Possibly the most disturbing thing about his current state is his scale loss. There's patches on either side of his body where there's none, and the tissue wounds run deep- to the point if you hold him up to the light, you can see right through.

Included are some rather poor-quality photos, but I'm working with limited equipment at the moment and did the best I could. They'll be updated when I manage to find my better camera. The question remains however - is there anything that can be done, or considering the advancement of the wounds, is euthanasia a better option?

My other fish (Oakley) did share the tank with Reno, and inhabitated the same water as he did. The only difference was that Oakley's side of the container had the filter on it. Beyond keeping a close eye on him and keeping them both in seperate containers (they've been relocated from their home tank to clean water in different jars) should anything else be done?

Sorry about the block of text, and thanks for reading this all.

Edit: It's dropsy, all the symptoms match.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I believe they both have it, actually. You can try treating them with Kanaplex and Furan-2 for a week but you need to get larger quarantine tanks for them both. Jars won’t work. They both need 5 gallons each. They are suffering the results of stress due to being confined in too small of tanks.

 

[b3t4m0m]

Thanks for the advice. Good news is that's two pictures of the same fish, so there's a chance the other one isn't infected (apologies, should've clarified). The one attached to this is Oakley. He'll be getting moved to a 5 gallon by tomorrow or the next day, and I'll make sure to keep a closer eye on him and try to get my hands on those just in case.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

How often are you doing water changes and how much water do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

Does the tank have a filter?
If yes, how often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?

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Are there any live plants in the tank?
If not, look for a plant called Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta). It is a floating plant and is great for Bettas to hang out in.

If you don't have a light above the tank, then look for a plastic plant with smooth soft leaves and have that in the tank.

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Feed the fish a varied diet consisting of dry, frozen (but defrosted) and live foods. This gives them more nutrition and can help prevent illness.

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Do not let the fish see each other all the time. If they are housed next to each other they spend all their time and energy trying to kill each other through the glass. This eventually wears them down and they are more prone to getting sick.

If you want to see them show off, have their tanks next to each other but put a piece of dark card between the tanks so they can't see each other. Then once or twice a week, remove the card and let them show off to each other for 5-15 minutes. Then put the card back so they can't see each other.

Each fish will think it has driven away the intruder and strut around like a big man who has just picked on a little kid.